Albert Kircidel Cohen (June 15, 1918 – November 25, 2014) was a prominent American
criminologist
Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and so ...
. He is known for his
Subcultural Theory
In criminology, subcultural theory emerged from the work of the Chicago School on gangs and developed through the symbolic interactionism school into a set of theories arguing that certain groups or subcultures in society have values and attit ...
of
delinquent
Delinquent or delinquents may refer to:
* A person who commits a felony
* A juvenile delinquent, often shortened as delinquent is a young person (under 18) who fails to do that which is required by law; see juvenile delinquency
* A person who fa ...
urban gangs, including his influential book ''Delinquent Boys: Culture of the Gang.'' He has served as Vice President of the
American Society of Criminology from 1984–1985 and in 1993 he received the society's
Edwin H. Sutherland
Edwin Hardin Sutherland (August 13, 1883 – October 11, 1950) was an American sociologist. He is considered one of the most influential criminologists of the 20th century. He was a sociologist of the symbolic interactionist school of thought ...
award.
Work
Albert Cohen was a student of
Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons (December 13, 1902 – May 8, 1979) was an American sociologist of the classical tradition, best known for his social action theory and structural functionalism. Parsons is considered one of the most influential figures in soci ...
and wrote a Ph.D. under his inspiration. Parsons and Cohen continued to correspond also after Cohen left Harvard. In his 1955 work, ''Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gang'',
Cohen wrote about delinquent gangs and suggested in his theoretical discussion how such gangs attempted to "replace" society's common norms and values with their own sub-cultures. He proposed two basic ideologies, the first of which is called status frustration.
Status frustration is directed mainly to the young people of lower classes. There is no parallel between their own social realities and the rest of society's promoted goals. They become frustrated at the disadvantages and inequalities that they face, and this leads to Cohen's second principle; reaction formation.
Reaction formation is the reaction from status frustration, and the young men of the lower classes find themselves replacing their society's norms and values with alternative ones. I.e. instead of working hard being the common goal for respect, it may become a delinquent act like who commits the most vandalism to gain the respect. This provides the group with a sense of values and status which they cannot receive from the larger society. It is a process which allows the members of the groups to adapt to their own exclusion from society. Unlike Merton's strain theory, Cohen holds the view that the reaction to status frustration is a collective response rather than an individual one.
This theory accounts for the increasing rates of non-utilitarian crime (
vandalism
Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property.
The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The term ...
,
loitering
Loitering is the act of remaining in a particular public place for a prolonged amount of time without any apparent purpose.
While the laws regarding loitering have been challenged and changed over time, loitering is still illegal in various j ...
and
joyriding) in western societies. Although actions such as these do not provide monetary gain to the perpetrator, they come to hold value to members of the sub-culture. As such, becoming accessible means of achieving status and prestige among the individual's peer group.
Personal history
Albert Cohen graduated from Harvard University with honors in sociology in 1948.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Albert K.
American criminologists
1918 births
Harvard University alumni
2014 deaths